Rocket and Pear Salad with Roasted Beetroot and Sweet Potato
Confession time. I tend to be a bit selective when it comes to food. My husband calls it fussy but I assure him its not, its selective. I think you get to a certain age stage of life where you know what you want like and you don’t want to waste room with the rest cause it sticks to you!.
Anyway, one of the things I don’t normally like is fruit in my salads. But I tried a salad similar to this recently and it works. I was shocked! I would even go so far as saying that pear is a superb addition to this salad!
The weather in Sydney has been unusually warm. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Its just that I expected it to cool down and started to make soups. D’uoh!
I have since gone back to eating salads for lunch most days now, and this is my current favourite….
deeeeelicious!
By the way I do eat more than just salad for lunch. But having said that, this is no ordinary salad!!
Enjoy 🙂
- 2 medium sweet potatoes
- 2 medium beetroot
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- salt to taste
- 150 grams rocket or mixed rocket and baby spinach leaves, washed and dried
- 1 ripe pear
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
- 50 grams (or more if you like your food cheesy) feta cheese
- Dressing:
- 1½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1½ tablespoons pomegranate molasses
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Heat oven to 200 degrees and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper
- Scrub sweet potatoes and beetroot well, then chop into 2-3 cm cubes
- First place the sweet potato in a bowl, drizzle over some olive oil and a pinch of salt
- Toss to coat in oil and transfer to prepared tray
- Repeat with beetroot, then place both trays in the oven for approx 40 minutes, or until veggies are lightly browned and cooked through
- At this stage the vegetables can be set aside for later, or stored in the fridge for the next day
- When ready to serve, place rocket on the base of either one plate to share or on individual plates.
- Slice pear and evenly distribute over the rocket, along with the roasted sweet potato and beetroot
- Add all the dressing ingredients to a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake well
- Pour dressing over salad
- Then sprinkle with seeds and feta and serve
- Enjoy!
The easiest way to make this salad is to roast the beetroot and sweet potato when you have the oven on to bake something else.
Don’t peel either of them, just wash well, chop, toss in olive oil and bake…
ready to be baked….
ready for the oven
When cooked, allow to cool, then store in the fridge so when you’re ready, you can throw this salad together in minutes 🙂
Why are pears so good for me?
Well first of all they are a fruit – and don’t believe all that hype about fruit being full of sugar. It’s a natural product that came straight off a tree, so hasn’t been messed around with (you hope) and is full of fruity goodness like….
- they are low GI, so they turn into energy slowly in your body which can help to keep you feeling full
- they are full of fibre (make sure you eat the skin as it contains a lot of the fibre), which is really important to help you poop regularly, and I can’t begin to tell you how important that is!
- they are full of really important vitamins and minerals (if you want to know which ones, look it up) and things called phytonutrients, which are powerful plant nutrients which can reduce inflammation in your body (trust me, this is helpful), they are protective against nasty diseases (like heart disease and diabetes), slow down the ageing process (super-important) and can reduce your risk of cancer (we all need this type of protection)
- best of all, eating them can stop you from becoming pear-shaped! Okay, maybe I made this one up, but I could provide you with a convincing argument that it is true 🙂
p.s. if time poor, leave out the roasted beetroot and sweet potato and make this salad just with the pears, rocket, feta and seeds – you could even add some walnuts too. This variation is also amazingly delicious. Who ever said salads are boring?
